1. Field of the Invention
This device relates generally to clamping devices with locking mechanisms and more particularly to vice locking clamping devices having pivoted opposing jaws.
2. Description of Related Art
Several clamping and locking mechanisms exist in the art. Exemplary of these are U.S. Pat. No. 2,280,005, issued Apr. 14, 1942 to W. Petersen and U.S. Pat. No. 2,514,130, issued Jul. 4, 1950 to H. T. Jones. These clamping devices are generally sold under the trademark VISE GRIP by the Petersen Manufacturing Co. of DeeWitt, Nebr.
Many devices incorporating variations in the configuration of the gripping jaws are present in the art. These prior art devices provide clamping jaws which perform specific functions or grip specific work pieces. Many of these clamping devices have pivoting jaws. However, none of these devices have jaws which pivot around an axis extending between the clamping jaws.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,588, issued May 31, 1988 to G. Dillhoff for a Universal Clamping Tool having rotating L-shaped clamping members, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,610, issued Apr. 18, 1989 to J. Redmon, Jr. et al. for swivel jaws on a Self-Locking
Clamping Tool, show clamping devices having jaws which rotate around an axis passing through the jaws of the device. Clamping devices with locking mechanisms, particularly those of the vise locking variety, have proven to be extremely versatile and useful. Typically these devices have a pair of opposing clamping jaws attached each to its own handle, or arms, which arms are hinged together in scissor-like fashion. In the usual configuration, the clamping jaws extend forward from the arms so that the entire device presents an elongated clamping device which accesses the work piece to be clamped from the front of the device. Unfortunately, it is often necessary to clamp work pieces which may not be alignable with the front of these prior art clamping devices due to space limitations surrounding the work piece to be clamped. For example, it is often necessary to clamp work pieces which are located in crevices or chambers which are located to the side of where the elongated clamping device can be located. Therefore, work pieces located in such crevices are often inaccessible to prior art clamping devices because there is insufficient space to align the prior art devices with the work piece to be clamped.
In part in an attempt to remedy this problem, a variety of sizes of prior art clamping devices have been developed thereby allowing smaller clamping devices to have access to work pieces which wold be inaccessible to larger clamping devices. However, these smaller clamping devices often produce insufficient torque and/or clamping pressure due to their small size. Further, despite the small size of many of these smaller prior art clamping devices, there still exists a limitless variety of locations for work pieces which do not present themselves for clamping by the smaller prior art devices despite their small size. Therefore, in some applications requiring relatively large torque and/or clamping force, these smaller prior art devices prove incapable of either accessing the work piece or providing sufficient gripping strength to hold the work piece. For this reason, these smaller prior art clamping devices are often unacceptable.
It was in an attempt to address the problem of accessing work pieces located to the sides of an area where the main body of the clamping device can be placed that the instant invention was motivated.